Following the report of the independent commission on sexual abuse in the Church (CIASE), the religious and judicial authorities agree to promote, if necessary, the opening of investigations.
Last October 5, the French Church took the hit. After nearly three years of work, the Sauvé report was made public. The conclusions of this independent commission were overwhelming. If we take into account those assaulted by lay people working in Church institutions, the number of victims of sexual abuse within the Church rises to some 330,000 minors. A real explosion.
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“We had to lay down our burden”, declared Jean-Marc Sauvé, the president of the CIASE, “we have contributed to the work of truth, it is up to the Church to seize it”. A work that the Bishopric of La Rochelle has been undertaking for several years now. “The report was necessary and allowed us to take a considerable step forward”, declared however, last November, Monsignor Colomb.
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It is in this very sensitive context that the official signing of a protocol between the latter and the public prosecutors of La Rochelle and Saintes takes place today. An official document whose main merit is to clarify the legal framework of such cases.
“A victim who reports that she is the subject of sexual touching in the context of her religious education and that this happens repeatedly, every Wednesday or every Saturday at catechism, there we are in a situation where this risk of reproducing and it is absolutely necessary to protect it”, explains Laurent Zuchowicz, public prosecutor of La Rochelle, “in this case, the secrecy of the confession jumps completely and, that goes even further, because if it does not there is no report, the person receiving this information may be blamed for not having protected the person by transmitting the information to the judicial authority. This protocol defines that in black and white”.
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Since 2016, each diocese had been invited to set up a reception and listening cell for victims. In La Rochelle, three people have volunteered to ensure the permanence. But, according to Monsignor Colomb, very few cases have been reported.
“We are on an extremely small volume of cases”, confirms Benjamin Alla, prosecutor of Saintes, “there is no particular case in progress within the jurisdiction of the prosecutor’s office of Saintes. Nevertheless, the interest of this protocol , it is indeed to sensitize one and the other and to say that from now on no one can ignore the law, that these obligations of denunciation exist and that the particular treatment will be reserved for this procedure “.
Monsignor Georges Collomb, he knows more than anyone that the subject must be treated with caution. “Depending on what we hear, what we know, what is reported to us, we can assess whether there are probabilities and in this case it must be reported”, says the clergyman, “You have to be careful because there can be gossip, maliciousness and you shouldn’t destroy someone by reporting too hastily. But you shouldn’t take the risk of leaving people who can be dangerous in the wild” .
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